I, I am the Lord, and there is no deliverer besides me.

I, I am the one who blots out your rebellious deeds for my sake; your sins I do not remember.

Then the guard ¹  cries out: “On the watchtower, O sovereign master, ²  I stand all day long; at my post I am stationed every night.

“I, I am the one who consoles you. ¹  Why are you afraid of mortal men, of mere human beings who are as short-lived as grass? ² 

Look, I create the craftsman, who fans the coals into a fire and forges a weapon. ¹  I create the destroyer so he might devastate.

Remember what I accomplished in antiquity! ¹  Truly I am God, I have no peer; ²  I am God, and there is none like me,

Can a woman forget her baby who nurses at her breast? ¹  Can she withhold compassion from the child she has borne? ²  Even if mothers ³  were to forget, I could never forget you! ⁴ 

The sovereign Lord has spoken to me clearly; ¹  I have not rebelled, I have not turned back.

I am the Lord your God, who churns up the sea so that its waves surge. The Lord who commands armies is his name!

“O afflicted one, driven away, ¹  and unconsoled! Look, I am about to set your stones in antimony and I lay your foundation with lapis-lazuli.

As a mother consoles a child, ¹  so I will console you, and you will be consoled over Jerusalem.”

I said, “Too bad for me! I am destroyed, ¹  for my lips are contaminated by sin, ²  and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin. ³  My eyes have seen the king, the Lord who commands armies.” ⁴ 

Indeed,” says the Lord, “captives will be taken from a warrior; spoils will be rescued from a conqueror. I will oppose your adversary and I will rescue your children.

Look, I and the sons whom the Lord has given me ¹  are reminders and object lessons ²  in Israel, sent from the Lord who commands armies, who lives on Mount Zion.

I decreed and delivered and proclaimed, and there was no other god among you. You are my witnesses,” says the Lord, “that I am God.

This is what the Lord, your protector, ¹  says, the one who formed you in the womb: “I am the Lord, who made everything, who alone stretched out the sky, who fashioned the earth all by myself, ² 

I made the earth, I created the people who live ¹  on it. It was me – my hands ²  stretched out the sky, ³  I give orders to all the heavenly lights. ⁴ 

It is me – I stir him up and commission him; ¹  I will make all his ways level. He will rebuild my city; he will send my exiled people home, but not for a price or a bribe,” says the Lord who commands armies.

“I hate their deeds and thoughts! So I am coming ¹  to gather all the nations and ethnic groups; ²  they will come and witness my splendor.